Today is the auspicious day of Noolu Hunnime or Sutta punav(thread is called Noolu in Kannada and Suta in Konkani. Hunnime/punav is full moon day). The thread referred is the scared thread(Yajnopaveetam) . So this day, Brahmins discard the old sacred thread and then wear a new one after doing pooja. So at my native, one guy from each Konkani house goto the Veer Vithal temple and do the pooja to sacred threads. Then the guys at home wear the threads after doing the Sandhyavandan (A daily ritual done by Brahmins).
The other famous festival celebrated throughout India today is Raksha Bandhan . Sisters tie rakhi to their brothers and in turn brothers assure them to protect from all the evils. As an assurance, brothers give gifts to sisters. But these days, the gifts have taken out all the meaning of rakhi and sisters invariably ask for a gift :D.
Since it is Raksha bandhan today, I thought of posting my brother’s favorite snack. He is a food lover and likes to try different types of food. When I was thinking what I could post here today, this recipe immediately came to my mind. Whenever I see a packet of papdi in Indian stores, it reminds me of my brother. When he was in school, he used to pester my mom a lot to make the mirchi for him. One day, mom was taking an afternoon nap, and anna (I call him as anna meaning elder brother) wanted to have mirchi, instead of waiting for mom to get up, he tried making his own mirchi. Well, he had spoiled it up because he didn’t know what the ingredients were, but still he ate it all saying it was great but didn’t taste like aayi’s mirsang (mirsang – green chilli).
Anybody who has studied or lived in Belgaum, know about this dish. This is widely available in all chat shops. So when anna went to Belgaum for his engineering, he used to eat this papdi-mirchi a lot. (He never took me to that shop :(. I came to know about this from my cousin who was also upset with anna for not taking him to eat this dish).
Papdi is available easily in Indian stores. This is made of besan(chick pea flour), but I have no idea how they make it. So for time being I am happy to buy it ready made. The mirchi is prepared as follows
Ingredients: Green chillies 6-7 Oil 1 tea spn Besan(chick pea flour) ½ tea spn Salt ¼ tea spn
Method: Heat oil and add the green chili slits (chilies cut into two lengthwise).
Fry for 2-3 min till the chilies become slightly brownish.
Now add salt and besan and mix well (so that there is a coating of besan on the chilies). Fry for a min and remove from flame.
Preparation time : 5min
How to eat? Take 3-4 papdis and one chili at a time and eat. Be aware if the chilies are too hot (hot chilies with the bland papdis make a great combination).
Sukkil(dried) sungta(shrimp) kismuri (chutney) is one of the most popular seafood preparation in coastal Karnataka and Goa . Our dear friend Vitz (who is from Karwar ) had requested for this recipe long back (He is one of the guys who is responsible for starting my blog. Thanks Vitz for your immense support). I had searched a lot for dried shrimp here (since hubby is also a great fan of this dish), but I was unable to find it. But last week when I again gave a detailed search in ‘ChinaTown’, I found a packet of small cute shrimp packet sitting quietly in a freezer. Finally now I know where to find any kind of seafood here in US :D.
This dish does not involve any kind of cooking (roasting of dried shrimp hardly takes any time), so it can be prepared in no time.
Mahek explains here the Goan recipe for this dish.
Ingredients: Dried shrimp 2 tbls spn Coconut ½ cup Onion pieces 2 tbl spn Tamarind juice(thick) ½ tea spn (Soak tamarind in water and squeeze it to get the thick juice) Chili powder ½ tea spn Salt
Method: Clean the shrimp (remove the sharp edges, they can be removed easily by hand).Dry roast (fry without oil) the shrimp for around 5-6 mins till the shrimps become crunchy and aroma (or bad smell for those who don’t like dried fish smell) of the shrimp comes out.
Mix coconut, onion pieces, tamarind juice, chili powder and salt (Mix thoroughly with hand). Just before serving, add the shrimp and mix (do not add before, the shrimps should be crunchy while eating).
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 10min
